Garret Roberts Beaver County Times USA TODAY NETWORK While they may be cute, giving your chickens a quick ‘peck’ on the head has some negative side effects.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a warning for chicken owners, advising them to avoid ‘chicken kissing.’ Based on the rising numbers of salmonella in the United States, it is advised that those with chickens as pets or those raising poultry practice increased safety around their birds.
According to the CDC, there were 163 poultry-based cases of salmonella as of May. From those infections, 34 people were hospitalized from the illness.
While the most common spread of salmonella is through meat, the increased number of chickens as pets has led to an increase in the spread from live birds. Last December, 1,700 cases were linked to backyard flocks throughout 2020.
One way to avoid infection from the pets is to leave poultry outdoors. When caring for chickens requires them to come inside the house, it is important to keep the birds away from food preparation areas.
‘We have had chickens hatch in the house in the past using an incubator,’ said Donnie Gallagher, who raises Serama show chickens near Sandusky, Ohio. ‘The goal is to get them into the barn as soon as temperatures are safe to do so.’
While healthy-looking birds may appear safe at first, they can carry the infection and transmit the illness to vulnerable individuals such as children under 5 or adults above 65 with a weakened immune system. Chickens should be kept away from areas where the salmonella infection can spread to these populations, especially in vulnerable settings such as daycares, schools, hospitals or nursing homes.
Additionally, those tending to their flock should wear a separate set of clothing to handle chickens, wash the coops with chemical disinfectants and make sure to wash their hands after working around the birds.
While the opportunity to snuggle with the birds may seem appealing, staying safe can prevent the infection from spreading to those who may not be able to battle salmonella.
‘Backyard poultry projects can be fun for the whole family, when operating under safe and monitored conditions,’ said Emily Shoop, a Penn State extension educator who focuses on the poultry science field. ‘By all means, hold, talk to, spend time with and enjoy your backyard flocks. Just be sure to wash your hands, and please don’t kiss your chickens.’
WASHINGTON – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday issued a new moratorium on evictions that would last until Oct. 3, as the Biden administration sought to quell intensifying criticism that it was allowing vulnerable renters to lose their homes during a pandemic.
The new moratorium could help keep millions in their homes as the coronavirus’s delta variant has spread and states have been slow to release federal rental aid. It would temporarily halt evictions in counties with
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“substantial and high levels” of virus transmissions and would cover areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives.
The announcement was something of a reversal for the Biden administration after it said that a Supreme Court ruling prevented a moratorium. But the choice to impose a new measure in the face of legal uncertainty was also a win for the progressive lawmakers who pushed the White House to do more to prevent some 3.6 million Americans from losing their homes during the COVID- 19 crisis.
President Joe Biden stopped short Tuesday afternoon of announcing the new ban on evictions during a press conference at the White House, ceding the responsibility to the CDC.
The extension could help heal a rift with liberal Democratic lawmakers who were calling on the president to take executive action to keep renters in their homes as the delta variant of the coronavirus spread and a prior moratorium lapsed over the weekend.
The new policy came amid a scramble of actions by the Biden team to reassure Democrats and the country that it could find a way to limit the damage from potential evictions through the use of federal aid. But pressure mounted as key lawmakers said it was not enough.
Top Democratic leaders joined Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who has been camped outside the U.S. Capitol, the freshman congresswoman who once lived in her car as a young mother leading a passionate protest urging the White House to prevent widespread evictions.
“For 5 days, we’ve been out here, demanding that our government acts to save lives,” she tweeted. “Today, our movement moved mountains.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was a day of “extraordinary relief.”
“The imminent fear of eviction and being put out on the street has been lifted for countless families across America. Help is Here!” Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement.
Administration officials had previously said a Supreme Court ruling stopped them from setting up a new moratorium without congressional backing, saying states and cities must be more aggressive in releasing nearly $47 billion in relief for renters on the verge of eviction.
The president said he sought input from legal scholars about whether there were options and said the advice was mixed, though some suggested, “It’s worth the effort.” Biden also said he didn’t want to tell the CDC, which has taken the public health lead in responding to the pandemic, what to do.
“I asked the CDC to go back and consider other options that may be available,” he said.
The CDC has identified a legal authority for a new and different moratorium for areas with high and substantial increases in COVID-19 infections.
Biden also insisted there is federal money available – some $47 billion previously approved during the COVID-19 crisis – that needs to get out the door to help renters and landlords.
“The money is there,” Biden said.
The White House has said state and local governments have been slow to push out that federal money and is pressing them to do so swiftly.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen briefed House Democrats Tuesday about the work underway to ensure the federal housing aid makes it to renters and landlords. She provided data so that lawmakers could see how their districts and states are performing with distributing the relief, according to a person on the call.
The treasury secretary tried to encourage Democrats to work together, even as lawmakers said Biden should act on his own to extend the eviction moratorium, according to someone on the private call who insisted on anonymity to discuss its contents.
Yellen said on the call, according to this person, that she agrees “we need to bring every resource to bear” and that she appreciated the Democrats’ efforts and wants “to leave no stone unturned.”
As the eviction crisis mounted, the White House frequently said Biden was doing all he could under legal constraints. The administration had repeatedly resisted another extension because the Supreme Court appears likely to block it. When the court allowed the eviction ban to remain in place through the end of July by a 5-4 vote, one justice in the majority, Brett Kavanaugh, wrote that Congress would have to act to extend it further.
As the initial moratorium expired, the administration emphasized many Americans will be able to stay housed with money already approved for aid and other efforts underway. The White House noted that state-level efforts to stop evictions would spare a third of the country from evictions over the next month.
Still, Biden faced stinging criticism, including from some in his own party, that he was was slow to address the end of the moratorium. Some people were at immediate risk of losing their homes.
Pelosi had called the prospect of widespread evictions “unfathomable.” The Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other progressive lawmakers intensified pressure on the White House to issue an immediate extension.
Late last week, Biden announced he was allowing the ban to expire, pushing Congress to act, but lawmakers were unable to swiftly rally the votes as even Democrats questioned prolonging the eviction ban for a few more months.
The CDC put the initial eviction ban in place as part of the COVID-19 response when jobs shifted and many workers lost income. The ban was intended to hold back the spread of the virus among people put out on the streets and into shelters.
Democratic lawmakers said they were caught by surprise by Biden’s decision to end the moratorium, creating frustration and anger and exposing a rare rift with the administration. The CDC indicated in late June that it probably wouldn’t extend the eviction ban beyond the end of July.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the powerful chair of the Financial Services Committee, has been talking privately for days with Yellen and urged the treasury secretary to use her influence to prod states to push the money out the door. But Waters also called on the CDC to act on its own.
After the CDC’s announcement Tuesday, Waters released a statement thanking Biden “for listening and for encouraging the CDC to act! This extension of the moratorium is the lifeline that millions of families have been waiting for.”
Supporters of Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., camp with her outside the U.S. Capitol on Monday to protest the end of the eviction moratorium that expired Saturday. The CDC issued a new moratorium Tuesday. JOSE LUIS MAGANA/AP
They can’t arrest us all. They can’t keep all your kids home from school. They can’t keep every government building closed – although I’ve got a long list of ones they should.
We don’t have to accept the mandates, lockdowns, and harmful policies of the petty tyrants and feckless bureaucrats. We can simply say no, not again.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi — you will not arrest or stop me or anyone on my staff from doing our jobs. We have all either had COVID, had the vaccine, or been offered the vaccine. We will make our own health choices. We will not show you a passport, we will not wear a mask, we will not be forced into random screening and testing so you can continue your drunk with power rein over the Capitol.
President Biden — we will not accept your agencies’ mandates or your reported moves toward a lockdown. No one should follow the CDC’s anti-science mask mandates. And if you want to shutdown federal agencies again — some of which aren’t even back to work fully — I will stop every bill coming through the Senate with an amendment to cut their funding if they don’t come to work.
No more.
Local bureaucrats and union bosses — we will not allow you to do more harm to our children again this year. Children are not at any more risk from COVID than they are for the seasonal flu. Every adult who works in schools has either had the vaccine or had their chance to. There is no reason for mask mandates, part time schools, or any lockdown measures.
Children are falling behind in school, and are being harmed physically and psychologically by the tactics you have used to keep them from the classroom last year. We won’t allow it again.
If a school system attempts to keep the children from full-time, in-person school, I will hold up every bill with two amendments. One to defund them, and another to allow parents the choice of where the money goes for their child’s education.
Do I sound fed up to you? That’s because I am.
I’m not a career politician. I’ve practiced medicine for 33 years. I graduated from Duke Medical School, worked in emergency rooms, studied immunology and virology, and ultimately chose to become a surgeon.
I have been telling everyone for a year now that Dr. Anthony Fauci and other public health officials were NOT following science, and I’ve been proven right time and time again.
But I’m not the only one who is fed up. I can’t go anywhere these days — from work, to events, to airports and Ubers, restaurants and stores, without people coming up to me thanking me for standing up for them.
For standing up for actual science. For standing up for freedom. For standing against mandates, lockdowns, and bureaucratic power grabs.
I think the tide has turned, and more and more people are willing to stand up. I see stories from across the country of parents standing up to teacher unions and school boards.
I see members of Congress refusing to comply with Petty Tyrant Pelosi.
We are at a moment of truth and a crossroads. Will we allow these people to use fear and propaganda to do further harm to our society, economy, and children?
Or will we stand together and say, absolutely not. Not this time. I choose freedom.
They can’t arrest us all. They can’t keep all your kids home from school. They can’t keep every government building closed – although I’ve got a long list of ones they should.
We don’t have to accept the mandates, lockdowns, and harmful policies of the petty tyrants and feckless bureaucrats. We can simply say no, not again.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi — you will not arrest or stop me or anyone on my staff from doing our jobs. We have all either had COVID, had the vaccine, or been offered the vaccine. We will make our own health choices. We will not show you a passport, we will not wear a mask, we will not be forced into random screening and testing so you can continue your drunk with power rein over the Capitol.
President Biden — we will not accept your agencies’ mandates or your reported moves toward a lockdown. No one should follow the CDC’s anti-science mask mandates. And if you want to shutdown federal agencies again — some of which aren’t even back to work fully — I will stop every bill coming through the Senate with an amendment to cut their funding if they don’t come to work.
No more.
Local bureaucrats and union bosses — we will not allow you to do more harm to our children again this year. Children are not at any more risk from COVID than they are for the seasonal flu. Every adult who works in schools has either had the vaccine or had their chance to. There is no reason for mask mandates, part time schools, or any lockdown measures.
Children are falling behind in school, and are being harmed physically and psychologically by the tactics you have used to keep them from the classroom last year. We won’t allow it again.
If a school system attempts to keep the children from full-time, in-person school, I will hold up every bill with two amendments. One to defund them, and another to allow parents the choice of where the money goes for their child’s education.
Do I sound fed up to you? That’s because I am.
I’m not a career politician. I’ve practiced medicine for 33 years. I graduated from Duke Medical School, worked in emergency rooms, studied immunology and virology, and ultimately chose to become a surgeon.
I have been telling everyone for a year now that Dr. Anthony Fauci and other public health officials were NOT following science, and I’ve been proven right time and time again.
But I’m not the only one who is fed up. I can’t go anywhere these days — from work, to events, to airports and Ubers, restaurants and stores, without people coming up to me thanking me for standing up for them.
For standing up for actual science. For standing up for freedom. For standing against mandates, lockdowns, and bureaucratic power grabs.
I think the tide has turned, and more and more people are willing to stand up. I see stories from across the country of parents standing up to teacher unions and school boards.
I see members of Congress refusing to comply with Petty Tyrant Pelosi.
We are at a moment of truth and a crossroads. Will we allow these people to use fear and propaganda to do further harm to our society, economy, and children?
Or will we stand together and say, absolutely not. Not this time. I choose freedom.
Also, just over a week ago President Biden told us that if we got the vaccine we would not get Covid. Then a few days later his own CDC released data from a Massachusetts study showing that 78 percent of the people who caught Covid were fully vaccinated. Is it any wonder Americans have lost all faith in “the science” as it pours forth from the politicized “scientists” in charge of US public health institutions?
Just this week, Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the US is increasing – not ending – its airstrikes on Afghanistan. The US would be pulling regular military troops out of the country (though likely keeping CIA, Special Forces, and mercenaries on the ground), but it would continue to bomb Afghanistan using “over the horizon” facilities from the Persian Gulf.
Aug 2 – For libertarians – and even many non-libertarians – it’s not shocking to discover that a US Administration lies and deceives the electorate. For government on all levels, lying to the American people is as American as apple pie. Sometimes the liars are held to account for their deception, but most often they are not.
Watching these early months of the Biden Administration it’s hard not to think that lying, deceiving, and manipulation is rising to a whole new level.
Take “ending the endless war” in Afghanistan. President Biden was cheered for achieving what even Donald Trump could not deliver: an end to the pointless 20 year – and several trillion dollar – war in Afghanistan. By the 20th anniversary of 9/11, we were told, the war would be over.
The only people furious about this decision were the bombmakers at Raytheon and the rest of the military-industrial complex and the laptop warriors in the Beltway think tanks. It turns out, they really didn’t need to worry.
The US is not finally leaving the Afghan people alone to run their country as they see fit. Just this week, Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the US is increasing – not ending – its airstrikes on Afghanistan. The US would be pulling regular military troops out of the country (though likely keeping CIA, Special Forces, and mercenaries on the ground), but it would continue to bomb Afghanistan using “over the horizon” facilities from the Persian Gulf.
I’m sure that makes Afghan victims of US bombs feel much better.
Then last week Biden announced an “end of the US combat mission” in Iraq by the end of the year. While we’ve heard that line before, still it seemed like good news. However, as usual, the devil was in the details. While the “mission” was over, the US troops would remain in-country in an “advisory role.” This is despite the fact that the Iraqi Parliament formally requested last year that US troops leave the country.
Biden has bombed anti-ISIS militias supported by the Iraqi government twice this year (so far).
The 900 US troops illegally occupying Syrian territory would also remain in-country, the Biden Administration announced last week.
Also, just over a week ago President Biden told us that if we got the vaccine we would not get Covid. Then a few days later his own CDC released data from a Massachusetts study showing that 78 percent of the people who caught Covid were fully vaccinated. Is it any wonder Americans have lost all faith in “the science” as it pours forth from the politicized “scientists” in charge of US public health institutions?
The US mainstream media has morphed into a de-facto arm of the Biden Administration, however, covering up for all of these lies and word-games and holding precisely no one in government accountable. So much for a free media acting as a check on government power.
In fact, any “enemy” country overseas with such a subservient press would be targeted for a State Department color revolution.
Governments lie. We understand that. It is the nature of politics and power. In the absence of independent institutions to hold government accountable, however, such lies become indistinguishable from facts, and soon “freedom” itself becomes slavery, as Orwell wrote. Let’s hope more of America wakes up soon.
Great episode! Longer than usual as all the weekend CDC/Fauci flip flops and inconsistencies are discussed.Mask free Sweden-no deaths in the past month. Tests can’t tell regular Covid from variant.
As the CDC urges Americans to mask up against the Delta variant, Sweden’s chief epidemiologist has argued that more data is needed about the strain’s infectiousness. His mask-free nation is hovering at zero Covid deaths per day.
Anders Tegnell said on Friday that there was “a lot we do not know” about Delta and cautioned against drawing “far-reaching conclusions” about the coronavirus strain. He noted that the variant had been circulating in Sweden “for quite some time” with little effect, particularly in high-risk settings such as nursing homes.
His comments were made in response to newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggesting the Delta strain is more transmissible and could potentially cause more severe illness. The New York Times and other media outlets ran stories reporting that the CDC now believes the Delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox – but this comparison didn’t seem to impress Tegnell.
“It is difficult to say how contagious Delta is, [as] when it comes to chickenpox, we have been able to follow the disease for several years. The infectivity [of Delta] seems to be very uneven – in some cases, one person infects a hundred people, then we have other occasions when an infected person does not infect anyone at all,” he told Sweden’s Aftonbladet.
In separate remarks, he pointed to the fact that one-third of the country’s municipalities reported zero new Covid cases over the past week. At the same time, there was an uptick in cases among young people in Stockholm and other large cities.
And while US health authorities are pressing Americans in “high transmission” areas to mask up, Sweden dropped its last remaining mask recommendation – related to public transport – on July 1. While Sweden’s public health agency has supported measures such as social distancing and remote working, it has no recommendations for the use of face coverings in public spaces.
Reviled by the media for refusing to impose harsh lockdowns, Sweden’s less draconian approach to the health crisis appears to be paying off: The Scandinavian nation has recorded a total of eight Covid-linked deaths so far this month, an average of 0.25 deaths per day. While it’s possible this number will increase due to reporting lags, deaths have undoubtedly plummeted over the past several months. On June 4, Sweden reported 13 deaths – more than the entire month of July.
Daily hospitalizations have also hovered near zero in July: On most days this month, the country saw between 0-2 Covid-cases requiring hospital treatment. At the same time, daily cases have fallen sharply since April.
Despite the promising developments, Tegnell warned against getting too comfortable. He stressed on Friday that Sweden was still in a pandemic and urged his countrymen, especially those in younger age groups, to get vaccinated.
The CDC quietly announced last week that it was withdrawing its request to the FDA for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in February 2020 for detection of SARS-CoV-2.
Most of the public is probably unaware that similar to the current COVID-19 injections that are not yet approved by the FDA, but only given Emergency Use Authorization, so too the hundreds of diagnostic tests that supposedly detect COVID-19 are also NOT approved by the FDA, but only authorized via an EUA.
What is the reason the CDC is withdrawing its EUA request for the Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel?
In preparation for this change, CDC recommends clinical laboratories and testing sites that have been using the CDC 2019-nCoV RT-PCR assay select and begin their transition to another FDA-authorized COVID-19 test.
CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses. (Source.)
Caitlin McFall, writing for Fox News, is the only one in the corporate media I could find that even reported this, and the few reports I found in the Alternative media so far have been mostly inaccurate.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged labs this week to stock clinics with kits that can test for both the coronavirus and the flu as the “influenza season” draws near.
The CDC said Wednesday it will withdrawal its request for the “Emergency Use Authorization” of real-time diagnostic testing kits, which were used starting in February 2020 to detect signs of the coronavirus, by the end of the year.
“CDC is providing this advance notice for clinical laboratories to have adequate time to select and implement one of the many FDA-authorized alternatives,” the agency said.
The U.S. has reported more than 34.4 million cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began in 2020 and more than 610,000 deaths.
But while cases of COVID-19 soared nationwide, hospitalizations and deaths caused by influenza dropped.
According to data released by the CDC earlier this month, influenza mortality rates were significantly lower throughout 2020 than previous years.
There were 646 deaths relating to the flu among adults reported in 2020, whereas in 2019 the CDC estimated that between 24,000 and 62,000 people died from influenza-related illnesses.
The CDC urged laboratories to “save both time and resources” by introducing kits that can determine and distinguish a positive test for the coronavirus and flu. (Source.)
So there you have it. The CDC just basically admitted that many of the COVID-19 cases this past year could not be distinguished from “flu cases.” No wonder flu cases decreased to zero in so many places. See:
The ending of the EUA for the Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel will not happen until the end of the year, December 31, 2021, and the CDC recommends that laboratories start transitioning to other types of COVID-19 diagnostic tests that have been given an EUA by the FDA here.
At the time of publication of this article, the FDA has issued 251 EUAs for COVID-19 diagnostic tests since April 1, 2020. The vast majority of them are for the RT-PCR tests, including about 20 that were just issued EUAs since the beginning of this month, July, 2021.
The cash cow for these tests and the hundreds of companies that got rich selling them will now have to move on to the next phase to be able to cash in.
Diagnostic Testing Fraud: Controlling the Masses and Medical Kidnapping
We have been covering the corruption in the medical diagnostic testing field for the better part of a decade now, and we exposed it early on in the COVID-19 Plandemic last year as well.
Here are some of our previous articles from last year exposing the fraud of COVID-19 diagnostic testing.
When we started MedicalKidnap.com back in 2014, we learned that fraudulent diagnostic testing was a common way for doctors and hospitals to order children be removed from their homes.
Often they create false drug test positive results to remove children from their parents.
The worst offender, by far, in medically kidnapping children by use of a medical diagnostic test, is within the field of radiology and finding “proof” of child abuse simply by looking at x-rays.
This whole field has developed a recent new class of pediatricians “certified” as “Child Abuse Pediatricians,” and the lucrative jobs of these doctors depend on them finding abused children and putting them into the lucrative child trafficking network known as “foster care.”
When it comes to diagnosing “influenza,” we have exposed the fraud there as well, as pre-COVID-19 the CDC simply used estimates of cases of the flu, since they cannot verify actual numbers each year by diagnostic testing.
So COVID-19 allowed them to just further exploit the fraud of diagnostic testing to create fear and panic, and achieve their goals of enslaving the public and rolling out their experimental mRNA injections.
With this latest announcement by the CDC that they are now going to retire the RT-PCR Diagnostic tests and replace them with other tests that can now test both COVID and influenza, it is pretty easy to see what their game plan is for later this year.
Just about everyone in the U.S. will be able to be tested “positive” for something by this Fall when the flu season starts.
This will be the “Hegelian principle” implementation for 2021. The government creates the problem, and then they create the solution, which we know now is more “vaccines” for everything in life that ails us, and try to punish those who don’t want to play their game.
One has to read to the end of this deadly serious essay to see why I concluded that we could take back our planet by ignoring health officials and politicians by simply going out and having a good time.
It is straightforward. Officials at the CDC and the FDA do not know how to listen. Or they are being bribed by someone not to listen. It means they are not competent to do their jobs to serve and protect the public from harm. Intelligent people listen and understand what listening means. Compassionate and empathetic people listen because they are tuned into their hearts which can listen to the feeling and experiences of others. Unfortunately, the FDA and CDC professionals have no hearts because their minds are like steel, allowing no feelings about others to enter their consciousness.
Only incredibly arrogant people do not listen since listening is the key to life, and indeed, it is the key to love. Four decades ago, my mentor said the human race needed to learn to love to survive. Since love is abstract to many, we need to translate that into learning to listen since listening is our most significant proof of love. Without listening, there is no love. Therefore, there is no love in the upper echelons of the FDA or CDC or NIH, so they are not to be trusted to do the right thing.
The most beautiful loving relationships are created with listening. The best doctors are the ones who listen deeply to their patients—the same with good psychologists and therapists. Not sure if there are any excellent psychiatrists, for they are too eager to prescribe nasty drugs that do more harm than good.
A disaster? This is baseball we are talking about. The only disaster will be to NC State’s and sports writers bottom line.
If a free person chooses not to be a guinea pig the largest medical experiment in history, I say more power to them. The NCAA can write any rules they want. If that includes mandating chemical injections in order to play, acquiescence is up to the athlete’s discretion.
Once past the high school level big time sports is all about big time money. Sports is just another branch of the entertainment industry. If unvaxxed NC State players are banned from participation this is likely a blessing in disguise. They can concentrate on, get this, getting an education and doing something constructive.
Columnist USA TODAY There is nothing satisfying about a baseball team’s season ending via a vague press release just after 2 a.m. on the day they were supposed to be playing Vanderbilt for a spot in the College World Series championship.
But in our still fraught world of COVID-19 and its intersection with sports, it cannot be too surprising that NC State found itself in such a horrible position Saturday, having been tested and contact traced to the point where the NCAA was forced to remove them from the tournament.
This situation is particularly ominous right now, at a time when a large number of college and professional athletes are still refusing to be vaccinated, risking not just their own and other people’s health but putting teammates in position to suffer the kind of consequences that cost the Wolfpack a chance to win a national championship.
Regardless of how you feel about the vaccine, the protocols that local governments have put in place, the NCAA, any professional league, the CDC, Dr. Fauci or whatever politician of your choosing, this is how it’s going to go for the foreseeable future. Don’t want to get vaccinated? Your choice. But understand what you’re risking: A positive test that, at any time, could ensnare others and wreck historic seasons.
Maybe NC State’s unvaccinated players who triggered this situation – two of them tested positive, according to a report from d1baseball.com – were well aware of that risk the entire time. But it sure didn’t seem like vaccination was a big priority or talking point for coach Elliott Avent, who said in a news conference Friday that encouraging players to get the vaccine wasn’t in his job description.
He also told a reporter who asked whether he was vaccinated that he didn’t want to talk politics, which shows you how off the rails this entire thing has gotten when a life-saving vaccine is now assumed to be part of the political polarization discourse.
‘My job is to teach them baseball and make sure they get an education and keep them on the right track but I don’t try to indoctrinate my kids with my values or my opinions,’ Avent said. ‘We talk about a lot of things but these are young men that can make their own decisions.’
Indoctrination? C’mon, coach. Not only is that disingenuous on its face – Which college coach has ever said it’s not part of their job to teach life lessons and impart good values? – it’s just plain dumb.
And it’s going to get dumber as the year goes on because, at least anecdotally, there are still a lot of football teams both at the college and NFL levels struggling to get most of their players vaccinated. In fact, according to some college administrators I’ve spoken with, there are a significant number of teams haven’t even hit 50% – which means they’re entering the season with a competitive disadvantage.
The biggest takeaway from the College World Series should be that NC State isn’t a fluke event. It’s the canary in the coal mine for what we’re likely to see this fall as football teams with low vaccination rates see positive tests pop up, sidelining unvaccinated and perhaps some vaccinated players who did the responsible thing and still got unlucky.
And yes, there are plenty of examples so far of vaccinated athletes testing positive because the science tells us that vaccinated people could indeed have a small amount of the virus in their system and not get sick from it.
We’ve seen that with multiple New York Yankees testing positive early in the season, Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul missing playoff games despite being vaccinated and now reportedly four NC State players who were vaccinated.
But the key thing to remember as we go forward is that vaccinated players at the College World Series weren’t being regularly tested until the unvaccinated players started testing positive.
For the next several months and potentially longer than that, there isn’t going to be any other way to conduct team sports. If you’re vaccinated, you don’t have to be tested if you’re not feeling sick. If you’re unvaccinated, you’re going to be tested all the time because you could be at significantly more risk of getting sick yourself or spreading the virus.
That’s the deal we’re going to have to make to get back to normal. It’s a pretty reasonable one, particularly within the context of a team that is sharing locker rooms, traveling together, eating together and practicing in close proximity.
Nobody wants a repeat of the 2020 season when a lot of teams, particularly in college, had so many positive cases that they fell below the threshold to conduct practices or safely play in games. The schedule was pure chaos, and some teams could never get on track because of the lack of bodies.
Amazingly, we have a way out of that: A vaccine that is safe and widely available. And yet, a certain percentage of athletes – many of whom take all kinds of supplements and powders to enhance their performance, no questions asked – are going to make the conscious choice not to take it.
We’ve now seen the consequences when that choice is applied to a team concept. It’s not just the unvaccinated players that pay the price, but the vaccinated players, too.
The awful situation with NC State this weekend didn’t have to happen. But it seems almost certain it’s going to happen again and again.
North Carolina State players, including Sam Highfill, right, wait in and around the dugout during a delay due to COVID-19 safety protocols before playing against Vanderbilt on Friday.Rebecca S. Gratz/AP
A US judge has ruled against 117 workers at Houston Methodist Hospital who sued their employer over a vaccine mandate. Even though the current status of the “vaccines” is experimental (not yet fully FDA approved), the judge nevertheless called the workers’ concerns over safety absurd. What’s next? Also today, new poll shows Democrats overwhelmingly favor forcing shots on the public. And the CDC announces “emergency meeting” after hundreds of cases of heart inflammation are reported among young people after Covid shot. BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: TWO (!!) RPI CONFERENCES THIS SUMMER! August 15th Houston; Sept. 4th Washington DC. Subscribe for free to RPI for updates and ticket information: http://ronpaulinstitute.org/subscribe/
Apparently the judge has never heard of the Nuremberg code and forcing subjects to take experimental chemical treatments.
MCViewPoint 